Hurricane Isabel swept through Hampton Roads a decade ago this week, on Sept. 18, 2003 — flooding coastal and low-lying areas and knocking out power to large swaths of the region, some of them in the dark for as long as two weeks. After the damage was repaired and power restored, many asked, "What did we learn? What can we do better next time?"

Bonita Harris, a spokeswoman for Dominion Virginia Power, said Isabel was the worst storm in Dominion's 100-year history and taught the company many lessons.

Isabel caused "catastrophic damage," including downing 10,000 power poles, almost 8,000 transformers, and 1,000 miles of distribution lines in the region, Harris said. When the time came to rebuild, Dominion made improvements to ensure the grid would stand up better to storms — and they've paid off.

"The investments we've made in our infrastructure since Isabel have paid dividends," Harris said. "Our grid is much less prone to storm damage."

There has also been a push for Dominion to place more power lines underground. The utility's research suggests that putting the most vulnerable 20 percent of lines underground could cut the number of repairs needed after a storm by 63 percent.

Nearly all power lines for new residential and commercial construction are places underground and 37.5 percent of Dominion's 56,000 miles of distribution lines are currently underground. Putting older lines underground would be a years-long undertaking and has not yet been approved.

Dominion also created a hierarchy of repairs in the wake of the 2003 hurricane season, which identifies key facilities such as fire, police and water treatment buildings that are first on the list of repairs after a big storm.

This was a big problem for Newport News Fire Chief Scott Liebold after Isabel.

Many public buildings didn't have generators and traffic signals didn't have backup power, Liebold said. Even some fire stations had only enough power to open the doors to let the trucks in and out and keep the refrigerators running. Now, Newport News has ensured that all critical emergency facilities have full backup power — the last two fire stations were brought up to 100 percent backup power this summer.

Liebold also said the efforts to get people prepared ahead of the storm were redoubled after Isabel.

"The reality of Isabel reinforced the importance of making a concerted effort to not just put the information out there, but reaching out and tapping people saying 'hey, this is here, this is where you can get the information, we can come talk to you about it,'" Liebold said. He also thinks people are taking a greater interest after the storm in 2003 showed their vulnerabilities.

"It was the first time in generations where the residents of Hampton Roads had to figure out how to make things work without turning a switch on," he said. "I think it was a wake-up call to the population that preparation is so important."

Hampton also made strides to ensure facilities such as fire stations, water pumping stations and emergency shelters had generators, according to Tracy Hanger, an assistant chief with Hampton Fire and Rescue who was with the department when the storm swept through.

Hanger said that Isabel is the modern-day benchmark by which officials judge storms and that flooding was severe in many areas of Hampton.

"We're always going to have challenges because we can't control Mother Nature, we can't control flooding. We can't control that — we're a low-lying coastal area," Hanger said. "There are certain things where the deck is stacked against us."

Despite the challenges of managing something like flooding, Hampton has worked to better understand and map flood zones and figure out which areas are most prone to being cut off by flooding so they can evacuate neighborhoods in low-lying areas.

After the 2003 hurricane, six homes in Hampton's flood-prone zones were raised through the FEMA home elevations program to get residences out of the reach of future rising waters. This involved putting the houses up on new brick or concrete foundations or, in some areas, up on stilts.

Andrea Clontz, the emergency coordinator for Isle of Wight County, said technology has become a major asset in alerting and updating people during a crisis.

"When Isabel came, the majority of people probably didn't have cell phones. Now we have cell phones and social media and Twitter to get information to people," Clontz said. She said using multiples channels in case one fails is a huge step up from a decade ago, when power loss and phone issues impeded the flow of information after Isabel.

Clontz also noted that areas in the region now have pre-negotiated contracts for debris removal, which allows for a quick and efficient cleanup process after the storm. Instead of scrambling to find who needs what where, everything is coordinated ahead of time and can be put into action at a moment's notice.